Immersion means



Patented July 25, 1944 2,354,459 I IMM AN f ArchW. Harris, Cleveland, Ohio, and William M. Henry; Monongahela. Pa.,-assignors' to The AmericanSteel and Wire'Company of New 'Jersey, a. corporation of.New Jerseyv Continuation, of application Serial No.1 280,894, June 23:, 1939. This application April 12,1943,

Serial No; 482,782

claims. 1 (01. 1512.5)"

This invention relates to ways and meansof immersing flexible articles, such as wire, strip, cables and the like into baths, and, more particularly, into baths of .molten coating metal, such as are used in hot-galvanizing .operations. The invention has for its principal field of .application, coating one metal upon another,. and,

'most particularly hot-galvanizing wire, rodsor tionary bar or roll sinker, the wire is subjected to a sharp bend beneath the surface. of the bath, which is oftentimes responsible .for cracking the alloy or metallic compound layer loose from the underlying metal, whereby the coating is ren-, dered defective.

Another objection to the prior art practice of submerging a wire into coatingbaths, is that the wire is withdrawn from the bath at such an angularity that the forces, such as, gravity, and adhesion which are constantly at work thereon, tend to pull the unsolidified coating metal to one side .of the wire, which causes an eccentric or lop-sided coating that is undesirable. immersion methods of the prior art are not adapted to meet the needs of certain modern practices that have been developed in coating wire, since the extent of immersion cannot be as ac- The 'Figurel is a sectional elevationof anexemplary embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is 'a sectional View line II-IIof Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a section taken from the. line III-III of Figure 4; and

Figure 4 is a section taken from the line IV IV ofFigu'reB; I Referring more particularly; to the drawing in which like characters refer to like parts throughout, a 'sinkerbox I has an offset portion 2 in which a diet is positioned in communicating-relation between-theinterior of the boxand a'bath ,ormonen-zmc 4' in which the sinkerbox is immersed, h V

The die 3 is composed of iron, or other suitable metal and has an orifice through which awire'W is adapted to pass. ,Itis desirable that the orifice provide acIearance of from .002 to .006 of an inch in order that it will not be subjectedwto undue wear, or tend to scarify the wire. .An orifice of .0 0 2kto :.O0,6 of an inch may befused without incurring the: risk of molten zinc 1 1. ning into the box, whilel up to ;O10'o'f an inch, clearance may be employed with safety so long as the wire is kept' moving therethrough.

taken from the i ,e wire maybe guided'by anysuitablemean into and out ofi the box .l but this is preferably accomplished by means of a sheave 5 located within the box'so as toj direct the wire W -enter-, gh the orifice of the] i'ng the rein, upwardly thr" die 33. V This sheave :may bejournaled .On'a fixed axis, although it is" preferable that it be mounted so that alignment between the peripheries of the sheave and the axis of the die orifice may be corrected as required. To this end, the sheave curately controlled as the operating conditions surface of the bath, so that any effects of gravi-v tation or adhesion will work to preserve the concentricity and smoothness of the coating.

Having reference to the accompanying drawing:

may be mounted, as shown in the drawing, by journaling it to an arm member 6 mounted adjacent the top of the box by a pivoted shaft 1. The arm 6 is in the form of a bell-crank and its free end bears up on a hand-screw 9 which adjusts the position of its other end carrying the sheave 5. g

When the hand-screw is operated to move vertically in the direction of the arrow A, the sheave 5 is caused to swing in the direction of the arrow B. It will be seen that this movement moves the periphery of the sheave 5 toward or away from the center line of the orifice of the die 3. In this way the periphery of the sheave 5 is brought into proper tangential relation with the wire W so as to center the latter respecting the orifice of the die 3, in one direction. v

To arrange for transverse alignment of the sheave with the wire die orifice, the shaft 1 which axial disposition of the shaft 7 can be varied, This, in turn, will, through the bell-crank"'8,"

cause the sheave to be moved sideways into alignment with the vertical axis of the-die ori-' fice 3. Suitable lock nuts' l3 are provided to lock the hand-screws ll0' after they have been set to the desired adjustment. Annular flanges M are fixed about the shaft"! to hold the bell-crank properly positioned on the shaft 1.

The box I is positioned over the bath 4 by means of a frame, illustrated in Figures 2 and 3.-

These figures illustrate the conventional pot or receptacle l5 forretaining the bath of molten zinc. This pot is mounted in refractories l6, whereby heat may be applied to maintain the bath in molten condition. y

Bridging the bath isa frame I1 having up-- rights l8 at each side of the bath connected by a cross-member H! from which hangs'a screw suspending the box I. A nut '24 having an internally threaded bore engaging the screw 20 is journaled in the cross; member l9; Shaft bearings 2| are provided adjacent the cross member and journal afshaft 22:carrying intermediate its ends a worm '23,. the nut 24Ih'avinga toothed pe-.

riphery worked by this worm 23. The end of the shaft 22. is provided with a crank- 25 by the manipulation of which theshaft 22, the worm 23 andthe nutf24 are, respectively, rotated to raise or lower the box I by screwing action between the nut 24andscrew 20. 1

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that a wire may be threaded through the box by. raising the latteriabovethe level of the bath and depending on the temperature ofv the bath, thesize of the wire, the speed at which the wire is traveling, and the purpose that the immersion,

is to serve. It is believed that the wire in coat- 'ing operations can most advantageously be introduced to the coating bath after passing through the box, whereby it emerges from the latter in a vertical direction, although it is conceivable that the wire could run into the box after having passed through the coating bath, in which case the die orifice 3 would function to control the shape and size of the coating.

The foregoing is one example of our means for immersing elongated metallic articles in a bath so that-objectionable features of the prior art are overcome; and so that the duration of immersion may be critically controlled if the application to which it is put should require that this be effected.

We claim:-

'1. Apparatus for immersing a flexible metal strand in molten metal, comprising a pot for containing the molten metal, a die for immersion in the molten metalin the pot and permitting passage ,of the strand but not the molten metal, means .for continuously feeding the strand throughthe die to beyond the level of the molten metal in the pot, and a Wall for separating the molten metal and thestrand excepting for the space between the die and the molten metal level, the st'rand'being immersed in the molten metal only while passing through said space and said apparatus including, means for varying said space between the die and the molten metal level. 2. Apparatus for treating elongated metallic articles by immersion in molten .metal baths, comprising a hollow body, .entry and exit ports in said. body, one of said ports being adapted for disposition beneath the surface of the bath;

meansfor excludingthe bath from the interior of said body and means for raising and lowering said body to alter the distance between the sub-,-

mergedport and the baths surface.

3 ,Wire coating apparatus comprising, in combination, means for advancing .wire past a-molten metal coating bath; a sinker. for deflecting said wire beneath the plane ofthe surface of the bath,,and means .for retaining the bath away from the surface of the Wire between the baths surface and the sinker at one side of the latter, and up to a point intermediate the wires position of extreme deflection and the baths surface at the other side of the sinker.

ARCH W. HARRIS WILLIAM M. HENRY. 

